How to use PowerShell terminal when switched to conda environment without adding conda to system path?

[Eric-Atlantis]

I wonder if there is a suitable way to use the PowerShell terminal under a Miniconda virtual environment without adding conda to the system path.
It seems that the Python extension will try to execute the conda activate base command after the interpreter is switched to Python 3.9.5 64-bit ('base': conda) and the PowerShell terminal is called by Ctrl+~. But this default action will not work and cause an error since conda is not added to the system path. I noticed that Command Prompt could work properly and Miniconda provided a link named "Anaconda Powershell Prompt (Miniconda3)". The Command Prompt uses C:/ProgramData/Miniconda3/Scripts/activate and conda activate base commands. The reasons why I did not add conda to the system path include that this is not recommended by Miniconda and that I have Python 3.8 environment outside.
I have found a related question on StackOverflow. Is there any advice on this question? Many thanks for your help.

Environment Data
VS Code version: 1.61.2
Extension version: v2021.10.1365161279
OS and version: Windows 10 20H2
Python version: Python 3.8 and Miniconda py39_4.10.3
Type of virtual environment used: N/A, venv(probably replaced by Miniconda3 in the future), Miniconda3

[brettcannon]

You can set the python.condaPath setting and that should cause the extension to use an absolute path when possible.

But I think in this specific instance it won't help since conda activate is actually a shell command. So if you have not had conda initialize your shell then this command will always fail. You can turn off automatic activation if you want.

We are also looking into how to simulate what conda activate does via #17332, so our hope is to eventually skip using conda activate all together.

[Eric-Atlantis]

Many thanks for your answer. I have currently set the Command Prompt as my default terminal for Python folders and workspaces. I am looking forward to the progress in #17332.
I have also made some effort by myself. An interesting finding is that if adding the powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -NoExit -Command "& 'C:\ProgramData\Miniconda3\shell\condabin\conda-hook.ps1'" command before, the conda activate command can work properly. It seems much easier than the simulating job you have mentioned and does not affect the outside environment from my perspective. I don't know if this finding makes sense though I am willing to see its contribution.

[brettcannon]

Thanks for the info! Please leave a comment on that issue about what you found. We do need a cross-platform solution, though, and we need something that isn't activation-specific as that's what we are trying to simulate doing.